common

adjective

1. 1

   Mutual; shared by more than one.

   The two competitors have the common aim of winning the championship.

   Winning the championship is an aim common to the two competitors.

   Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

   They shared a common dread that he would begin moaning.

2. 2

   Existing among virtually all people; universal.

   common knowledge, common decency, common sense

   No man of common humanity, no man who had any value for his character, could be capable of it.

3. 3

   Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.

   It is common to find sharks off this coast.

   Thus it is sayde in the cōmon vsage.

   That loss is common would not make ⁠My own less bitter, rather more: ⁠Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.

   Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.

4. 4

   Found in large numbers or in a large quantity; usual.

   "Commoner" used to be commoner, but "more common" is now more common.

   Sharks are common in these waters.

   It differs from the common blackbird in the size of its beak.

   Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)

5. 5

   Simple, ordinary or vulgar.

   the common folk

   This fact was infamous / And ill beseeming any common man, / Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.

   above the vulgar flight of common souls

   Mr. Crackit (for he it was) had no very great quantity of hair, either upon his head or face, but what he had was of a reddish dye, and tortured into long corkscrew curls, through which he occasionally thrust some very dirty fingers ornamented with large common rings.

6. 6

   As part of the vernacular name of a species, usually denoting that it is abundant or widely known.

   the common daisy (Bellis perennis)

7. 7

   Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal.

   common name vs. scientific name.

8. 8

   Arising from use or tradition, as opposed to being created by a legislative body.

   common law

   As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]

9. 9

   Of, pertaining or belonging to the common gender.

10. 10

    Of or pertaining to common nouns as opposed to proper nouns.

11. 11

    obsoleteProfane; polluted.

    What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

12. 12

    obsoleteGiven to lewd habits; prostitute.

    a Dame who her self was as Common as the King's High Way

noun

1. 1

   Mutual good, shared by more than one.

2. 2

   A tract of land in common ownership; common land.

   The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

   Throughout the land there is a great variation in the shape and size of village greens, from the many of pocket-handkerchief size to a roadside common of 20 acres or more - as at Lindfield in West Sussex.

3. 3

   The people; the community.

   the weal o' the common

4. 4

   The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo communicate (something).

   Then entred Satan into Judas, whose syr name was iscariot (which was of the nombre off the twelve) and he went his waye, and commened with the hye prestes and officers, how he wolde betraye hym vnto them.

2. 2

   obsoleteTo converse, talk.

   So long as Guyon with her commoned, / Vnto the ground she cast her modest eye […]

   1568-1569, Richard Grafton, Chronicle Capitaine generall of Flaunders, which amiably enterteyned the sayd Duke, and after they had secretly commoned of.

3. 3

   obsoleteTo have sex.

4. 4

   obsoleteTo participate.

5. 5

   obsoleteTo have a joint right with others in common ground.

6. 6

   obsoleteTo board together; to eat at a table in common.

Forms

plural

commons

superlative

most common, commonest

past tense

commoned

past participle

commoned

present participle

commoning

third person singular

commons